The Shark is Broken

The Shark is Broken is a comedy written by Ian Sham and Joseph Hixon. The show was directed by David R. Jarrot. It features three actors who play actors that are shooting the movie Jaws. The actors in the show were Jim Lindsay, Will Gibson Douglas, and Bob Beare. The characters are Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Sham. It was shown at the Trinity Street Playhouse in Austin, Texas.

The show was about the three actors shooting the movie Jaws. Some of the technical aspects of the movie, like the shark, kept breaking which left the three actors stuck in the middle of the ocean for four to nine weeks. The show showed the audience what the actors did while they were fixing the shark. They went into their different families, lives, and how they lived outside of the acting world. However, they also started to get sick of each other being with each other for so long. They started fighting and having mental breakdowns until the final shooting day when they were almost ready to go home.

The acting was very realistic. It’s very hard to entertain an audience for an hour and a half with only three actors. They had to keep their energy up even though they didn’t do a lot of physical activities to help with their energy level. They each had different relationships with one another that was entirely different from the other actors. All the actors had different obstacles in the character’s personal life that they each had to figure out what it was and how to overcome that obstacle while being out at sea on a boat for more than a month.

The design of the show was featured in a black box type theater space. The lighting in the show mostly portrayed the time of day it was. Darker, blue lighting was used for late evening or night time and bright orange and yellow lights were used to portray that it was late afternoon. The set featured a boat with a deck on stage right. The boat was inspired by how steamboats were usually made to portray that they were in such a tight space for weeks while shooting the movie.

Overall, I thought the show was executed very well. I loved the challenges that the actors faced during the show and trying to keep the energy and comedy going for an hour and a half, late at night. The design really made it look like they were out at sea shooting a thriller movie. The show was extremely well directed and showcased in the space they had.